Manu Mohan and Manseki Kanemitsu joined me on light ride to Osaka Castle and back. It was my first ride with Manu since we tackled Seryo Pass three months ago.

Manu's bike is a folding commuter bike, which is not really appropriate for “real” cycling. It's too small for him and the range of gears is limited, but the ride to Osaka is not challenging except for its length. The round trip is more than 100km.

His rear tire seemed a bit low on air, something that would rob him of speed and power. If he had a normal road bike we'd be able to use our pumps to fill it, but his commuter bike used a different kind of tire valve, so we planned to look for a bike shop when we got to town.

Coincidentally we crossed paths with Takuya Kawasumi returning from a ride. He owns a bike shop and had a pump that could work; he kindly filled Manu's tire. Talk about service! Thanks Takuya.

A bit later we stopped for a short rest under the cherry trees at the entrance of a wonderful park that I wrote about eight years ago in “Cherry Blossoms in the Middle of Three Rivers”. I've been meaning to go back... must make a note to do so next spring.

There's a nice cycle path running the bulk of the way between Kyoto and Osaka. I wrote about it a couple of months ago in “Cycling Along the River from Kyoto To Osaka Castle” so I won't repeat it all here, but in summary it's safe, often pretty, and usually interesting.

... except for the stupid gates that are supposed to let bicycles pass without letting motorcycles pass. As I wrote in the post linked in the previous paragraph, I hate these gates.

I was shocked when Manu just lifted his feet and sailed through without touching his feet to the ground nor the gate. That takes guts!

Manseki's bike for the day was a classic race bike from the 1980s, and he wore a helmet in the style of the same era, so he wanted a photo that sort of captured the vintage look. Maybe I overdid it a bit? 🙂

You can see the bike more clearly in this post about my first 100km ride five months ago.

A lot of folks we passed, like the lady in the photo above, wore full-face masks. It used to be only sun-shy women did, but a lot of men were wearing them now. It might be to avoid the sun, and perhaps could be some kind of defense against allergies, but in any case it's a bit weird.

It was an impressive feat for a bike like that, especially since it's way too small for him. As you see in all these photos, he has to ride hunched over.

After a short rest at Osaka Castle, we turned around to go home, but first stopped by a bike shop to check why Manu's tire was slowly going flat again.

It turns out that the tire valve was bent. Cycling is a sport for the rich; it cost Manu 100 yen (US$0.80) to have it replaced.

This was my first time to return from Osaka along the river. I suppose it depends on the day, but today the headwind was strong and noticeably slowed us down. I suppose we must have had a tail wind on the way down that I didn't notice, but we all certainly noticed the headwind.

The headwind and the hot sun conspired to keep us pretty slow, but Manu always had a smile.

Almost two and a half hours later...

Manseki had a slow leak that he was hoping to avoid dealing with until he got home, but near home he had to stop to put some air in it...

A bit farther on, Manseki turned off to head to his home. It was Manseki's first ride with Manu, so Manu got a special goodbye...

I knew we were back in Kyoto when I started to see ladies in kimono along the river...

Overall the ride was 108.6km, and is Manu's longest ride.... so far. 🙂

A month and a half ago I got an email out of the blue asking whether I'd like to have a free pair of wireless bluetooth headphones in exchange for a review on my blog. Well gee, sure, why not?! It's cheap advertising for them if I like them, but they risk bad PR if I don't.

In the past I'd tried small wireless headphones from Avantree, ECSEM, and Mpow before finding a pair I liked, “BlueAnt Pump”. I was happy with those, but figured it wouldn't hurt to give another pair a try.

So, I was sent a pair of Axgio Sprint Wireless Earbuds. I use the passive voice here because I don't actually know who the person sending them represents (they have a nondescript gmail address), but I assume it's either the maker or their American distributor. (Update:: after I published this, he contacted me to let me know he's from Axgio's marketing department.)

Anyway, I've been using them for the last month and I like them a lot, so their risk paid off.

Generally speaking, wireless headphones are the way to go when on the move. I use them when working out at the gym and when doing housework. (I never, by the way, use headphones of any kind when riding a bike on public roads.) I generally use them with my phone in my pocket or in my nearby gym bag. In either way, no wires to get in the way.

Specifically about these Axgio Sprint headphones, two items that caught my attention:

• Size — Ridiculously light and insubstantial. It's not that the other units I tried were problematically big or bulky, but these are really small and light, both while worn and carried in a pocket.

• English Feedback — Responses to events like being turning on, pairing, hitting maximum volume, etc., are indicated with an English voice in the headphones. Other units I've used employ a series of various beeps that are difficult (for me) to keep straight.

  With this Axgio unit, upon pressing the main button long enough to turn it on, you hear “Power On”, then “Connected”. Raising the volume to the max yields “Maximum Volume”, and when put into pairing mode, you're told “Pairing”, etc.

  This is really convenient and you're never left wondering what happened, or whether something you tried to do actually happened. With other units it's easy enough to understand the various beep patterns when you're reading the manual, but I can never remember them when I actually need them. The Axgio's simple English feedback is wonderful. I find it especially useful for things that I really want to be sure are done, such as “Power Off”, and for things that don't happen often, such as “Battery Low”.

When turning on to use with my iPhone, the connection is usually almost instant, with “Power On” followed by “Connected” in the same second. This is much faster than the BLueAnt Pump connects for me.

It did take a bit before I could wear them correctly. Like the BlueAnt Pump that had been my primary earbuds, they wrap around the ear so that they're held in place during exercise and the like, but it took me a while to realize that unlike the BlueAnt Pump, you're meant to conform the wire to a shape that works for you. Not realizing this, I tried to make do with the shape that they came in, and it just wasn't right. I didn't realize that the wire is meant to be actively bent to find a good fit.

Considering that the Amazon listing includes the phrase “Memory Wire” in the title, this was my fault. I figured it out on the second or third day I had them, and things were much smoother after that. I also would have figured it out earlier had I read the manual.

It comes with a bunch of ear-bud inserts for different sized ears, but I haven't tried them... the ones that came installed on the unit work just fine for me.

I tested them with my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Pro. They worked flawlessly on the first two, but I've never been able to get a bluetooth speaker/headphone to work well with my MacBook Pro. This is a well-known problem with Apple's laptops, and considering how long the problem has persisted (many generations of hardware), it's clear Apple just doesn't care. )-:

I actually did get a good connection with my MacBook Pro the first time I tried, but the sound seemed to be quieter than I thought it should have been. But on subsequent attempts, it wouldn't hold a connection.

But as I said, it works just dandy with my iPhone and iPad. I use it mostly with my iPhone.

Like most bluetooth earbuds on the market it allows you to make and receive phone calls when paired to a phone, but I haven't tested that. No one calls me.

According to the manual it can actually pair to two devices at once (so that you can hear sound from two devices at once, I guess), but I haven't tested that.

The text in the printed manual is gratuitously small; I can read it when wearing my reading glasses, but it would have been nice if they just made the font a bit bigger. (I asked for and was sent a PDF copy of the manual.) The text on the outside of the box is even smaller, and I can't read it even with reading glasses.

The control buttons are another thing I really like compared to others I've tried. The little control unit is always hanging lightly a bit below the ear, and the main control button is always at the bottom of that, so finding it is always easy and deterministic, with good tactile feedback.

A long press turns it on if it's off and off if it's on (with accompanied “Power On” and “Power Off” status messages). While playing music it pauses or unpauses.

The other buttons are for volume up/down with short taps, or next/previous song with long taps. I actually wish these were reversed because I skip songs more than I set volume. The Mpow earbugs that I used to use were like this and I found it convenient.

As I said above, they are very light and there's no pull from the weight of the wire on your ear, but depending on your clothes and hair, really active movement can cause the wire to drag on your neck and sort of tug at the ear. This is pretty rare for me, but in these cases you can avail yourself of the little clip on the wire seen in the background of the photo below:

By using the clip to snug the wire firmly to your skull, there's no pull as you whip your head around. It's a simple and elegant solution to an occasional problem.

Two minor nits that I came across, besides the tiny fonts in their printing:

• The hook shape of the wire causes them to get hooked on things when pulling them from my gym bag, so I have to be a bit careful. I don't recall having had this kind of problem with the other units I've used.

• The unit doesn't seem to turn off automatically if the sound has been paused for a while. The manual says that it turns off automatically if there's no bluetooth connection for five minutes, but I think at least some other units I've used turn off if there's no sound for a while, even if the connection remains. With those units, I can just pause the music and put the headphones away; I don't have to bother actually turning the unit off. With this Axgio unit I have to remember to actually turn the unit off.

Sound Quality

Having written this much, I realize that I've not talked about sound quality. I'm not an audiophile, so fine details are likely lost on me, but I've not been the least bit disappointed in listening to music that I've known intimately for years. Whether some old Billy Joel, some modern light acoustic guitar, some rough Black Eyed Peas, some electronic Daft Punk, or heavy AC/DC, I've been pleased with the sound. It's clear, substantial, and full of “presence”.

I've also used them to listen to Japanese news broadcasts while doing the dishes, and found voices to be equally clear, so I'd assume they'd be good for phone calls.

But to provide a bit of due diligence, I've just compared these Axgio wireless headphones to some brand new over-the-ear wired Sony MDR-V6 studio-monitor headphones. I've used this model of headphone for the better part of 30 years, having to buy a new pair on average once a decade due to some mistake on my part or another. My previous pair got damaged in my luggage on my recent summer trip, so I immediately bought another pair.

Anyway, the Sony headphones are very good and are popular with professional sound engineers and were highly rated at Consumer Reports (which is probably why I bought them in the first place), so I wouldn't expect the literally-lighter-than-a-feather Axgio wireless in-ear headphones to fare well in direct comparison, but they did. The Sony headphones do seem to have better base response, but I noticed this only during direct comparison switching back and forth between the two sets of headphones; when using the Axgio headphones on a daily basis, I'd not noticed anything lacking.

Overall, a nice pair of wireless sports headphones, all the nicer because I got them for free. If I lost them or something, though, I'd spend the $50 or whatever for a new pair, which perhaps says the most about them.

Having completed this review I think I'm ready to try again... if Tesla or Nikon or Apple, for example, would like a review of their most recent product, just send one or a dozen units over and I'll be happy to give'em a try.... 🙂

A couple of Aussies on a cycling vacation in Japan contacted the Cycling Kyoto! group on Facebook looking for interesting rides in the area. A group of us ended up going on two rides in two days with Sarah Knights and Bridget Slocum, hard-core amateur cyclists that compete on the national level in Australia.

As it turns out, they're also fun people.

Manseki Kanemitsu and I met the girls near their hotel and moved across town toward the mountains to the west, picking up folks along the way....

After also picking up Mone Sakura, we headed toward the Arashiyama area of Kyoto, past Hirosawa Lake...

Some of the photos above have that “overprocessed” look, because they're overprocessed. I'm still not comfortable with my new cycling camera and find it all too easy to bump the settings out of whack without realizing it, so these photos were all wildly underexposed. It's only through the magic of shooting raw and compensating in Adobe Lightroom that I could recover anything. The HDR-ish look can get old very quickly, but can perhaps be cool in moderation.

After leaving the city there's an immediate short but intense climb to Rokucho Pass (750m at an average grade of 10%). I was happy to have made a new PR, and Bridget took the QOM (“Queen of the Mountain” — the fastest female recorded at Strava for a segment), her first of many. The comparable achievement for men is, of course, “KOM”.   I don't have any.

This hill is followed by a short descent of epic twisties. I went down early to try to set up for some shots of the others coming down, upon which I discovered the aforementioned camera-setting issues. I was in the process of trying to fix them when Sarah came barreling down, so I screwed up the shot. So, again, I rely on some overprocessing to try to eke out a result...

As far as “recovery processing” goes, on technical level I had better luck with this shot of Manseki a few months ago.

With the blotchy sunshine splattering through the trees, it probably wasn't the best choice of a spot to begin with. The blotchy sunshine creates trouble for the camera, but did create a wonderful mood for the ride...

The plan was to ride north to the quaint village of Miyama, essentially repeating this June ride with Gorm. From the train station the road rises in a long climb up and around Mt. Atago. Mone had to be back in Kyoto early, so she returned after the climb, while the rest of us continued north.

I missed most of what Manseki explained about this statue next to the Hiyoshi Shrine, but it had a bunch of stuff for cyclists, including a log book for visitors that Sarah is writing in. Behind the statue were a few bicycle-related things one could use like chain oil. I'm not sure what it's all doing there, but it made for a fun photo op.

The statue is next to the Hiyoshi Shrine (日吉神社), which is also good for a photo op...

I think this descent on Route 477 is one of the most beautiful descents in Kyoto, comparable to the southwestern descent from Mochikochi Pass. Just beautiful and relaxing (so long, at least, as no one crashes).

Unfortunately, it started to rain lightly (we hit the unlucky 10% on a day with a 10% chance of rain), so we had to take it particularly slowly, but it's just as well because with the road being closed to traffic, sticks and other debris had accumulated more than normally.

I held them back with the camera for long enough, and they took off...

The rain got stronger so I stopped under a tree to put the camera into a waterproof bag, but first waited to snap shots of Kumiko and Eric...

It was my first ride with Eric since the long ride to Obama at the start of the summer where he got two flat tires. As we rode together lazily downhill, I made the mistake of asking whether he'd had any flats since.

Big mistake on my part for disturbing the wa of the tire gods... literally 15 seconds after his answer of “No, none at all since then”, his tire suddenly deflated with an insistent hissing.

We hoped our troubles would be behind us after making it past the silly closed off area, but the unexpected rain and Eric's flat were just the beginning.

Continued here...

It's been half a year since our vacation brought us to Horseshoe Bend in Page Arizona, so I guess it's time to finally post some pictures.

Just like the stunning Antelope Canyon that we visited earlier in the day, from afar the place looks like nothing special...

Being a desert, there's sand (very fine powdery sand) everywhere. A path through it leads from the parking lot up a long rise. Here's a photo from about halfway up, looking back:

When you crest the hill, you see pretty much what you saw everywhere else, except for the addition of a big hole:

What's notably lacking are the normal trappings of a tourist attraction... other than a sign at the parking lot warning of the trek (slippery sand, lack of water, lack of shade), a well-worn path to follow, and a small gazebo at the high point of the trek to offer the elderly a place to rest, there's nothing manmade. No railings, no refreshment stands, no incessant signs warning of danger and admonishing “don't do this” and disclaiming “no responsibility for that”.

It was wonderful.

The path seemed to be little more than a rough suggestion, so rather than follow it with the crowds of people, I made my own path toward the left edge of the hole.

As I approached The Big Hole, the lack of signage was eerie. Nothing warning me to stay away from the edge, nothing warning me that there was an edge. It was 100% natural like it probably was 10,000 years ago.

Luckily I still knew how to wield some personal responsibility, and I did not die. Here's the first picture I took when I got there:

It's a stunning view, and it's very far down. If you fell, screaming the whole way, those left above would no longer be able to hear you by the time you hit bottom. (This may or may not be comforting to know.)

The dark corners in the picture are from the polarizer filter, or more specifically, from the XUME magnetic filter holder I'm using. I like to be able to take the filter off easily, so I often use magnetic holders, but it makes the filter stick out and cause vignetting that's most noticeable when shooting at smaller apertures like above.

I often crop out the dark corners, but I leave them there this time to show what I did with the photo. I made a sort-of-haphazard sweeping motion and shot a bunch more pictures, and gave them to Lightroom's “Photo Merge” and, and without further input from me it did a pretty good job slapping them all together:

I shouldn't really say “poorly planned” because that implies that there was any planning at all. If I'd given it any thought, I would have increased the coverage a lot. As it is, I left lots of blank areas, which makes a reasonable crop difficult. I did a crop, and touched up one seam I noticed in the sky, and here we are:

One could see boats moving on the river...

Anthony eventually came over to join me, at which point the lack of railings suddenly became much more important, and I was wishing I'd left him duct-taped to the camper. Nothing gets a parent's complete and undivided attention like danger to their child. But it's dangerous only if you're stupid or foolish, so I just made sure we were both amply cautious.

The way he's lying down in the photo above does not trigger my twisted-gut feeling, probably because it doesn't bother me to do it myself. But sitting or standing close gives me the willies.

In this next shot, he's not really very close, though I suppose it looks it.

Eventually I started to make my way to where people were...

Continued here...

San Francisco friends Eric and Gigi are in town again. We last saw them earlier in the year buying a Kimono and playing in the snow. Yesterday they made a visit to the Kiyomizu Temple, and I popped over to join them.

It was a Monday, but the place was crazy crowded like during a high-season weekend. The economy must really be doing better.

Eric and Gigi like to shoot portraiture, and the challenge in a setting 8like this is to find places and angles that omit the crowd, yet still lend a feeling of the location. As we instinctively moved away from the main gate, I saw two ladies in kimono taking a picture, and immediately felt the location held promise...

I felt that the top of the steps where the photographer was standing was the place for the subject, with a rich green background devoid of people if you got the camera low enough to the ground.

Soon Eric and Gigi were photographing one of the ladies...

(Unfortunately I didn't get the camera low enough to the ground for this shot to omit the people down below.)

Moving on to other parts of the temple grounds, we found a little bridge next to the hustle and bustle of the crowds that seemed to be amenable to a shot...

The trouble was finding an angle to omit stuff from the backgrounds like people, toilets, orange traffic cones, trash cans, etc. I think there was exactly one such angle, and I found it in the shot above.

Moving inside the temple to its famous observation deck...

Once those two ladies moved on, Gigi posed there for a bit. It was crowded with people, but every once in a while there would be a few seconds in the clear...

Across the way is another pagoda, which has apparently received a coat of paint sometime recently...

This photo of the same pagoda taken in 2008 shows quite a different look.

Here's a picture of Gigi and Eric with the temple sticking out of their head (but, you'll notice, no one else in the background)...

The short moment that no one was near them seemed fleeting enough that I didn't want to chance the time to reposition myself to put the pagoda off to the side.

What the railing they're standing at normally looked like...

Toward the rear of the temple grounds is a sub shrine that garnered a lot of visitors, with many folks stopping to take photos in front of the stairs seen at left in the picture above.

My eyes, however, immediately gravitated to the essentially-ignored path to the right (it leads to a hiking trail exit). The stonework on the path might make a nice background, I thought.

After actually giving it a try, I abandoned the idea of using the ground as the background, but instead took advantage of the stone and moss just to the side...

We eventually moved on to where one can get the quintessential view of the temple (like this, also seen here and here). In doing so, we were hapily greeted by this unknown couple...

(Their friend, taking a photo of them with an iPad, was next to me.)

It was threatening rain all day, but none materialized while we were out.

A girl asked Eric to snap a photo of her with her phone — not an uncommon request to a passer by — but she got more than she bargained for. Eric was in portraiture mode, she got the whole “tilt your head this way...” posing direction. She was surprised, but enjoyed it.

Near the popular place where you get water with a cup on the end of a lone pole, I noticed another spot that might make a good oasis-among-the-crowds spot. There's a looooong staircase that ends there... here's a photo of it from 2008:

In this photo from 2008, the railing on the right is metal. But during the visit yesterday, the railing on the right had been replaced by one made of stone, to match the railing on the left. Combined with the rocky/mossy background, I thought the location had promise...

After leaving the temple, we made the short stroll over to Camellia Tea Ceremony to take a peek. I'm not sure how Eric and Gigi came to know about it, but the owner has been an acquaintance since long before she opened this tea-ceremony business, so I wanted to say “hi”. Unfortunately she wasn't there at the time, but her staff was kind enough to show us around.

I remembered another nice oasis-among-the-crowds spot in this area from this blog post two years ago, and though the light was fading as a brooding evening started to take hold, they gave it a try with a few shots...

As I waited, a couple of ladies taking a rest nearby smiled for my lens...

Finally on the way back to my scooter, this young kid caught my eye, and I his (hers?) as his (her?) dad carried him (her?) like a sack of potatoes....